The NEC said “There is a need to support the Progressive Youth Alliance and reaffirm its hegemony at the country’s institutions of higher education. Doing this must necessarily involve acknowledging and confronting weaknesses within the organisations themselves, as well as ensuring that progressive student leaders are rooted amongst their constituencies.” The party had strong words for Sasco and the PYA, an alliance of Sasco, the ANC Youth League, the Young Communist League and the Congress of South African Students, which are all aligned to the ANC.

The organisations help nurture future ANC leaders, provide a youth voice within the Alliance, and lead many SRCs across the country, a symbolic and practical level of governance associated with the party. This year, however, Sasco has faced embarrassing losses to the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) and the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC). In March, the EFFSC won all 15 seats it contested at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), leaving just one seat for Sasco, previously in charge. This month, DASO won elections at the University of Fort Hare’s Alice campus, taking over the SRC from Sasco.

Because of Fort Hare’s historical ties with ANC leaders, and its student body, who largely come from poor and working class backgrounds, DASO’s victory has been portrayed as a symbol of the country’s changing politics. On Sunday, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said Fort Hare has not always been governed by Sasco and he does not understand the “hullabaloo” around the issue. Sasco has recently lost on four campuses, he emphasised. Sasco Secretary General Luzuko Buku later cited three – VUT, Fort Hare, and the University of Limpopo’s Turfloop Campus, where the PYA lost to the EFFSC.

The ANC NEC cautioned leaders who detach themselves from student issues. “Sasco must be assisted to know that student politics are about day-to-day issues and not the universal political concepts,” read the NEC statement. “Being rooted among students is critical for the strengthening to of Sasco. There must be a programme that is ongoing and not only focusing on SRC elections. The assumption of autonomy by Sasco leaders once elected to the SRC and thus remove themselves from organisational discipline must receive urgent attention from Sasco structures. The involvement of students in the adjudication of tenders is having a corrupting effect on students.”

Being perceived to be focusing on key student issues appears to be the key concern. After the Fort Hare election, DASO’s campus leader Mawethu Kosani said Sasco failed to lead students on matters relating to the cost of student housing and problems with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). He said Sasco leaders were seen as too close to management to hold it to account. At VUT, the EFFSC campaigned on similar issues, claiming Sasco failed when poor students who faced exclusion from their studies.

“What we understand from the ANC was they cautioned against the student movement not addressing some of the bread-and-butter issues,” said Sasco’s Luzuku Buku on Sunday. However, he said, the ANC should know Sasco has been leading the call for free education and for solving problems around NSFAS as it’s often criticising the ANC’s government’s positions. For example, after Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande’s recent budget speech, Sasco criticised the country’s spending on higher education and the crisis of student funding. “Our observation is that the speech is an arrogant display of ideology of permanent postponements, which have been the highlight of the minister’s reign,” wrote the organisation.

Buku admitted certain Sasco branches might have failings where some leaders do not manage to address the plight of students. One challenge the organisation is dealing with stems from “the dark days of Julius Malema” who while ANCYL leader prioritised a culture of putting his success before the organisation, Buku claimed. He said that was when the ANCYL were contesting elections against Sasco, which the ANC discouraged on Sunday. Another problem facing the ANC-aligned student organisations is the lack of leadership in the ANC Youth League. Buku said there was leadership at branch level, but national leaders have not been elected after the former administrations were disbanded. Buku said he would be “very happy” when there was an elected national structure for Sasco to consult.

Currently leading the ANCYL is a national task team including Fikile Mbalula, Nathi Mthethwa and Malusi Gigaba, who will meet with the PYA urgently to discuss the current problems. But some issues will be hard for the ANC leaders to resolve.

Writing in Sasco’s Moithuti journal this month, Chabalala Bolton, a member at the Medunsa campus of Sefako Health Sciences University, argued that PYA leaders were still best placed to lead student concerns, although there are problems with leaders losing touch. He said Sasco is facing challenges at universities such as Fort Hare and Nelson Mandela Bay, where DASO leads the SRC, because the youth are growing impatient for radical economic transformation and disgruntlement with the ANC is being transferred onto the PYA and Sasco. “These students vote out PYA for opposition because they want better administration of NSFAS, they want free education, they want to see service delivery happening in communities where they are from,” wrote Bolton. DM

Photo by SASCO.